Tough, reliable, easy, and top notch.

It seems kind of late to review this camera, but I'm on a roll tonight and thought I would say my piece.

Kudos to Nikon.

Every once in a while a product comes a long that makes me wish I had bought two of them. This camera is such a product. Unfortunately, it is probably no longer available in stores - but apparently you can buy it at the links below ...hmmmm...

Two years ago I was obsessed about the then new Canon 5 MP Digital Elph for months as my vacation approached. Finally, with a week to go, I went into the photo shop to buy it. I was fudging with it for about 10 minutes when the camera dealer said "We just got these new Nikons and the macro is much better".

Within minutes I figured out how to change every setting on the camera (having some photo experience helps) and was taking great close-ups of my thumbnail. The Nikon wasn't as flat as the Canon Elph, but the curved hand grip fit nicely - I could operate it with one hand! I was sold!

Now, almost two years later, I wish I bought two. But don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with my Nikon. It's just that yesterday I dropped it again for the third time. It survived but with a nice corner dent. I'm amazed, but I'm sure my luck will run out someday. I checked the latest Nikon offerings and they don't feel as robust, there's more plastic than metal.

This camera has revolutionized picture taking for me. It's due to one simple fact - it's so small I actually carry it almost every day in my pants pockets. I'm surprised pocket lint hasn't killed the lens autofocus, but I don't care - I want it in my pocket and not in some carrying case on my belt. It could use a pocket sock though.

The pictures are great! I took a shot of Seattle at night from the Space Needle in the auto mode after steadying the camera against a rail. The picture is so nice I had Fedex -Kinko's blow it up to 26 x 19 inches(about 100 pixels per inch) and it now hangs in my living room. I took another shot of a young rider jumping with his horse over a 5 ft oxer. I was standing next to the jump and framed the horse and rider from head to tail, feet to head - almost perfectly - and you could read the time on his watch even though he was in mid air and moving. Of course you can only do that shot in bright sunlight with this camera, and you have to pre-focus the camera by depressing the shutter half-way, before the horse arrives.

In two years I have taken over 5000 photos and many hours of video. It's just the best toy. Most friends have been envious, and one has gone out and bought one of his own.

The only things I would change about the camera are (a) include a manual mode or at least shutter and aperture priority (with more aperture settings), (b) improve the sound quality on the video recording, and (c) make the buttons and battery door out of metal - the metallic paint wore off long ago. I'm ok with the small 1.5" LCD view finder - it is very sharp, even though the AR coating wore off long ago.